Red Sox Journal: Innings worth more than pitch counts for Buchholz

Friday

SARASOTA, Fla. — Clay Buchholz could have called it a day after four innings. He’d thrown all the pitches he needed to throw.

SARASOTA, Fla. - Clay Buchholz could have called it a day afterfour innings. He'd thrown all the pitches he needed to throw.

But for Buchholz this spring, it's not about pitches - it'sabout innings.

"They asked me after the fourth inning - they said, 'Hey, that'sgood work for today,'" he said. "I know that I need to get my pitchcount up because I wasn't ready for my first couple starts lastyear, so it made me want to go back out there for that fifthinning."

After throwing five innings against the Baltimore Orioles onFriday, Buchholz is up to 15 innings pitched this spring. If hepitches the exhibition game in Washington on April 3, five daysbefore his first scheduled start of the regular season, he couldlog somewhere around 25 innings pitched for the spring.

He pitched 21 innings in spring training last year.

"I don't think I threw enough innings in spring training," hesaid. "My pitch counts were up there, but pitch counts don'tnormally mean anything because it's how many times you get up anddown off the bench after long innings and going back out therepitching and throwing 20 pitches and sitting down for five minutesand going back out. Three and two-thirds (innings) and throwing 80pitches doesn't really work with getting your legs underneath you.The innings numbers are more important than the actualpitches."

There might be something to that. After pitching into theseventh inning in his first outing of last season, a loss at Texas,Buchholz went four starts until he pitched into the seventh inningagain. He didn't pitch seven full innings in a start until themiddle of May.

Not coincidentally, his ERA was 5.33 at the end of April but gotdown to 3.41 by the end of May, a month in which he pitched intothe seventh inning four times in six starts.

Buchholz threw 86 pitches on Friday, putting him on theprecipice of being ready for the regular season to begin. Moreimportantly, he got up and down five times - even if he gave upfive runs on seven hits and a walk in the process. One of the homeruns was a no-doubter, but the other one was so wind-aided thehitter tossed his bat away dejectedly before watching the ball sailover the fence.

"Overall, this is about getting your work in," he said. "Youobviously want to see the results that you want to happen. Thatjust doesn't happen all the time. But I felt good, felt like I'mmoving in the right direction."

"He worked on everything he wanted to work on," manager BobbyValentine said. "He wanted to throw up to 90 pitches. He probablywanted to go maybe one inning more to do it, but what'd he throw,85 or 86 pitches? It was good work. His stuff was good."

Padilla may be nonstarter

Vicente Padilla will pitch just one inning in his scheduledappearance on Saturday, a signal that he's out of the running for aspot in the Red Sox rotation.

That leaves Alfredo Aceves, Daniel Bard, Aaron Cook and FelixDoubront in contention for the No. 4 and No. 5 spots behind JonLester, Josh Beckett and Buchholz. Doubront will pitch asplit-squad against at Miami on Saturday, Aceves a split-squad gameat home against Philadelphia. Bard will start on the road againstToronto on Sunday.

Padilla came to spring training as a starting pitcher andpitched multiple innings in each of his four appearances, but hedid not start a game. A hamstring injury suffered in the weightroom on Monday did not help his case.

But Padilla, who signed a minor-league contract with the Red Soxbefore the season, still has a chance to win an Opening Day rosterspot as part of the bullpen. All nine of the appearances Padillamade with the Dodgers last season came out of the bullpen.

Because of the unique repertoire of Padilla - he throws acurveball that sometimes doesn't break 60 miles per hour - he mightbe best used for multiple innings.

"He likes to throw a lot of pitches to get feel for it,"Valentine said. "He'll do what he can do."

Non-roster invitees Jesse Carlson, Brandon Duckworth, AlexHassan and Max St. Pierre all have been reassigned to minor-leaguecamp.

Of the group, Tazawa had the best chance of making themajor-league roster. The 24-year-old righty returned last seasonfrom Tommy John surgery, but his performance in spring training wasinconsistent.

"Tazawa just, as I told him, has to cut it loose," Valentinesaid. "He's one step away from being totally back. His pitches showthe crispness that we need, but not the consistency."

Hassan, whose plate discipline might be the best in the Red Soxfarm system, drew nine walks in 29 plate appearances in springtraining.

Crawford making progress

Carl Crawford has seen significant improvement in his conditionin the last 10 days, progressing from hitting off a tee to hittingsoft toss.

Valentine is keeping tabs on the condition of Crawford, and he'smaking sure to talk to him every once in a while. But Valentinesaid Friday he's not making any plans based on the return ofCrawford until it's much closer to imminent.

"Until he can be a baseball player, he's only a patient, so Itry not to interfere," Valentine said.

The same goes for Rich Hill and Daisuke Matsuzaka, two pitcherson track to rejoin the Red Sox sometime after June 1. When they'rehealthy, they're healthy.

Valentine will keep a closer eye on the condition of DustinPedroia, who did not make the trip to play the Orioles on Fridayafter taking a pitch off the forearm while swinging at a pitch onThursday night. X-rays were negative on Pedroia, and the secondbaseman "is ready to play," Valentine said. "He was more angry thatthe umpire called it a swing."

Repko does the little things

It's been a long time since Jason Repko dropped down a squeezebunt.

Repko was a rookie with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2005 when hewas asked to drop down a suicide squeeze bunt with Jose Cruz Jr. onthird base. It wasn't a game-changing situation - it was the secondinning - but it had a chance to make a difference in a game theDodgers ended up losing by one run.

Valentine has preached the value of doing all the little thingsthis spring. For Repko, being able to execute a squeeze bunt mightbe the difference between making the roster as the 25th man orbeing shipped out to Triple-A Pawtucket.

"The more I can do, the better, obviously," said Repko, who ishitting .207 with a .303 on-base percentage and five stolen basesin 29 spring at-bats. "Being a bench player, you've got to be ableto do the little things. That's one of the things you're requiredas a bench player, especially a guy like me with the speed. You'reexpected to do those things, so I work at it and, when called upon,hopefully I can get the job done."

With Ryan Sweeney on third base and one out on Friday night,Valentine called upon Repko to get a bunt down. Repko executed itperfectly.

"You just want to square late," he said. "More than anything, Iwanted to make sure -- I was pretty sure the play was on, but Iwanted to see the movement, and I saw Sweeney moving. I squaredlate and just made sure to get it down, tried to keep the ball inthe middle of the field and keep the ball on the ground."

Said Valentine, "I'm just trying to see what guys can do. Rephas been able to do a lot of things. It's not an easy pitch. He'sshowing us what he can do. He's playing a lot of goodbaseball."

bmacpherson@providencejournal.com

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